National Premier 2016: Karthikeyan is National Champion again!

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 30/11/2016

He had won it in Tamil Nadu in 2015, and today, he won it again, this time in Uttar Pradesh. Murali Karthikeyan is the 2016 National Premier Champion by a full point's margin! Aravindh Chithambaram had taken the early lead. But then his colleague did something he does best: make a comeback.

National Premier 2016: Karthikeyan is National Champion again!

Round 13 on 2016/11/30 at 10.00AM

Bo.

No.

Rtg

Name

Result

Name

Rtg

No.

1

7

2494

GM

Kunte Abhijit

+ - -

FM

Praneeth Surya K

2388

14

2

8

2565

GM

Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.

0 - 1

GM

Laxman R.R.

2387

6

3

9

2384

IM

Ravi Teja S.

0 - 1

GM

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

2689

5

4

10

2426

GM

Sriram Jha

0 - 1

GM

Bakre Tejas

2450

4

5

11

2530

GM

Karthikeyan Murali

1 - 0

Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad

2316

3

6

12

2666

GM

Adhiban B.

1 - 0

IM

Nitin S.

2415

2

7

13

2307

IM

Mishra Neeraj-Kumar

- - +

IM

Abhishek Kelkar

2389

1

In November 2015, Karthikeyan Murali began with two consecutive losses. But the youngster from Tamil Nadu made a regal comeback, staving off S.P. Sethuraman and Vidit Gujrathi to become the 2015 National Champion.

Aravindh Chithambaram had been leading the National Premier 2016 for most of the tournament. Karthikeyan had a lucky start to his tournament when he won on time against Vidit Gujrathi. But then, he lost to Aravindh.

Karthikeyan is not the one to lose hope. Aravind even won a beautiful endgame against Vidit in the penultimate round. But Karthikeyan kept playing consistently and had caught up with Aravindh going into the final round.

In the final round, had Aravindh won, he would have won the event. Had he drawn and had Karthikeyan won, the latter would become the champion. Had Karthikeyan and Aravindh both lost, Aravindh would still be the winner.

But Aravindh lost. All Karthikeyan needed to win the tournament was to at least gain a draw.

Aravindh Chithambaram was in a pseudo must-win situation to seal the tournament in his favour. But he lost to GM R.R. Laxman in the final round.

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